The Spirit of Purim 



BY 

HERMAN D. LEVINSON 




NEW YORK 
BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY 

'The Jewi«h Boofc Concern* ' 



Copyright, 1916, by Bloch Publishing Co. 



CHARACTERS. 



^ \> 



A both masked.- >- r • J\ 

Ahasuerus % ' * 

Time : Late evening — A Balhis in progress. 

Place: A room off the Ball Room. Easy chairs 
and some palms are all that keep'flie place from look- 
ing bare. Of course, too, there are ornate walls and 
rich draperies. It is, apparently' j: an"adjUnct to the ball 
room of one of the big hotels. 

Circumstances : Strains of a dance float in from 
the ball room, which is reached by a.wiiledoprway at 
the left. This doorway is covered with a heavy blue 
drapery. The dance ends. One of the Merrymakers, 
representing Ahasuerus, enters and holds aside the 
curtain. Esther enters. Since they are masked, we 
cannot see their faces, — except mouth and chin. They 
are both in regal purple, and their costumes represent 
a modern idea of ancient royal garb. The woman is of 
medium height; and the soft round arms, the fine chin, 
the delicate mouth, and wonderful black hair, that falls 
down her back to her waist, all suggest that she is fair. 
The man is tall, and, next to that, the most prominent 
thing about him is his strong chin. For purposes of 
brevity, we shall call the man "the king. ,> Esther is a 
short name, so let us emit;™*"* *~ ■ The man con- 

ducts the wonu ^^^^^^MMHHI '* most courtly 



manner, and tat t t .^ ner. 



_„©Ci.D 46192 

FEB 21 191? . 



Ety? Spmi of Jtetm 



Esther : Ha ! Blessed intermission. 

(A shout of laughter is heard from the crowd in the 
ballroom.) 

The King : Why must Jews be noisy ? 

Esther: That remark brands you as a very young 
man. I suppose it was meant to be cynical. 

The King: It was to be answered. And like a 
woman you have evaded it. 

Esther : The answer was so apparent that I didn't 
think it necessary. You were referring to the particu- 
lar group of Jews in the ball room. The Spirit of 
Purim is moving them. What do you expect when the 
Temple gives a Purim Masked Ball ? 

The King: Answered with a question. I was 
referring to Jews in general, however. 

Esther : You don't like Jews ? 

The King : I'm a Jew myself. 

Esther : I can scarcely believe it from the way you 
speak of them. 

The King: Have I not the right to criticize mine 
own people? 

3 



Esther : The right, yes. But the right tone, no. 

The King : You are playing with words. 

Esther : No, I am dealing with an idea. 

The King : And that is ? 

Esther : That it's too bad that Jews do not under- 
stand Jews. 

The King : Or Jewesses. 

Esther : No more than men understand women. 

The King : You refer I believe ? — 

Esther : I hardly need to explain that. 

The King : You refer to — 

Esther : Why gossip ? 

The King : Let's be frank. You refer to our Rabbi 
and his wife. 

Esther: You are clever, I see. You read my 
thoughts. 

The King : I wish I could. 

Esther : What good would it do ? 

The King: Then I would know the story of the 
Rabbi and his wife. 

Esther: There's not much to know. It was an 
unfortunate marriage, I believe. 

The King : Why did he marry her ? 

Esther: Perhaps for her looks. I've never seen 
anything else to her. 

The King : How unfair women are to women. 

4 



Esther: I didn't mean to be unfair. Have you 
ever found anything more than looks to her? 

The King : I'm afraid I don't know her very well. 
I'd rather reserve my opinion. 

Esther: Afraid, I suppose, that I should carry it 
back to her. 

The King : It would be favorable. Why should I 
be afraid ? 

Esther: Still not denying that I might repeat to 
her what you said. 

The King : Without meaning to be rude, I believe 
we were not discussing you, but the Rabbi and his 
wife. You started to tell me their story. 

Esther: And finished it when I told you that I 
thought their marriage an unhappy one. 

The King : Why unhappy ? 

Esther: The Rabbi is a reform Jew. His wife 
comes from a very orthodox family. Need I say 
more? 

The King: Yes. You've whetted my curiosity. 
Why should that make a difference ? 

Esther: It shouldn't, but it does. They both have 
different ideals. 

The King : His are ? 

Esther : I'm not sure that I understand them. He 
wants to be as nearly like the Christians as possible. 

5 



The King : And she ? 

Esther: As nearly unlike them as possible. 
The King : Surely they have something in common. 
Esther: Very little, as far as I have been able to 
ascertain. Both say they are Jews. 

The King: That's something to hold them to- 
gether. 

Esther : It depends on how truly they say it. 

The King : You seem to doubt their word. 

Esther: No, their judgment. People may delude 
themselves into believing they are things which they 
are not. 

The King : Then they are both wrong ? They are 
not Jews? 

Esther: I didn't say that. She may be Jewish. 
But him I consider a Unitarian. 

The King: Isn't a descendant of Jews, who be- 
lieves in One God, a Jew? 

Esther: He eats ham. 

The King: And rides on Saturday, I suppose. 

Esther: And preaches as much about Jesus as 
about Moses. 

The King: And doesn't wear tzitsis, perhaps. 

Esther : And worst of all, he sees very little glory 
in the Jewish past, and no hope in the future. 

6 



The King: Then why does he continue to be a 
Rabbi? 

Esther: I've never been able to understand. 

The King: Then lend me your woman's intuition 
while we try to figure it out. 

Esther: You mean my ability to guess? 

The King: Same thing. Let us begin. 

Esther: This grows interesting. 

The King: The Rabbi has a pleasant personality. 
Hasn't he? 

Esther: They tell me he's a splendid fellow. 

The King: Fairly well educated? 

Esther: He has his M. A. 

The King: He knows something of Judaism. 

Esther : He ought to. He's a Seminary graduate, I 
believe. 

The King : And a very honest man, I take it. 

Esther : As far as I know, he is. 

The King : Then why should he try to deceive the 
world ? 

Esther: Not the world? Himself. 

The King: Doesn't he live according to his own 
lights. 

Esther: Yes. But not according to those of his 
wife. If she's a Jew, then he is not. 

The King : He treats her well. 

7 



Esther: He's a gentleman. What else could you 
expect ? 

The King : And still she is unhappy ? 

Esther : Yes. 

The King: Simply because her husband does not 
stick to the old form? 

Esther : In part. 

The King : She must have known his habits before 
she married him. 

Esther : His habits, yes. But not his ideas. 

The King : Surely, she heard him preach. 

Esther : Love may be deaf as well as blind. 

The King: And marriage? 

Esther: Opened her ears, as well as her eyes. 

The King: And what did she hear and see? 

Esther: She heard him talk of assimilation as a 
natural and desirable end. 

The King : Couldn't she have misunderstand him ? 

Esther: His own wife? 

The King: Wives do not always understand. In 
his sermons I've heard him preach assimilation for 
those who have drifted so far from Judaism that they 
could not be brought back. It seemed to me he pre- 
ferred to see them Christians, with a God, than 
Atheists, without one. 

Esther: You understood him so. But how many 

8 



took the other meaning, the ultimate assimilation of 
all Jews ? 

The King : He can't be blamed for those who did 
not want to hear him aright. 

Esther: They heard him right when he said that 
the Jews are not a Nation and need no center in 
which to foster Jewish culture. 

The King: Perhaps because he believes Judaism 
to be sufficient as a religion; that such a center 
would harm it as such in the eyes of the world. 

Esther : He would let the glory of the past die. 

The King : For the sake of the future. 

Esther: What future can there be that does not 
live partly in the past. 

The King: The past is dead. 

Esther : So the Rabbi says. That's where he and 
his wife fail to agree. He is not consistent. 

The King: In what respect? 

Esther: He leads his congregation in such things 
as this Purim Ball. Yet he does not understand the 
Spirit of Purim; the Spirit of the Past that teaches 
and encourages the future. 

The King: And if he did understand that spirit? 

Esther: Then he and his wife might have some 
common ground on which to stand together. 

The King: And if he didn't? 

9 



Esther : We're at the Purim Ball. This is no time 
to think of tragedy. 

(Shouting and other noises from the Ball Room 
come to their ears.) 

The King: Some more of the Spirit of Purim, I 
suppose. 

Esther : You do not seem to understand that spirit, 
O Ahasuerus. 

The King: I think I do, fair Esther. 

Esther : How can you ? Ahasuerus was no Jew. 

The King : But he was the means of saving many 
Jews. Like your reform Rabbi. 

Esther: And for the same reason, I presume. He 
believed that Haman had wronged him. 

The King : I'm afraid I'm dense. I do not get your 
meaning. 

Esther : It would lose its flavor in being explained. 
It might be well for you to figure it out. 

The King: It's too much for my feeble brain. 
You see, I'm only a king, with councilors to do my 
thinking for me. 

Esther : I'm sorry I can give you no help. 

The King: Then I must continue to believe that 
Ahasuerus saved the Jews for the love of Esther and 
out of gratitude to Mordecai. 

Esther : You will not be entirely wrong. 

10 



The King: And that your Rabbi worked to save 
Jews, who might otherwise have drifted away from 
Judaism, out of love for his race, and out of gratitude 
for his God. 

Esther: You will not be entirely right. 

The King: No one ever is. 

Esther : But some are nearer right than others. 

The King: The Rabbi's wife, for instance. She 
understands the Spirit of Purim. 

Esther : It has helped her. 

The King : May I know how ? 

Esther: It taught her how, for the sake of her 
people, Esther, a Jewess, lived with Ahasuerus, who 
was no Jew. 

The King : I think I understand. I've often won- 
dered about that myself. 

Esther: The Spirit of Purim is not foreign to 
you then, if you can at least see what it is. 

The King : I think I can. You've made it clearer 
to me. I thank you for that. 

Esther : Then our chat has not been in vain. It's 
too bad that the Rabbi and his wife were not here to 
hear us. They might have profited, too. 

The King: (Rising, and slipping off his mask) 
Madam, I am the Rabbi. 

11 



Esther: (Rising, also, and slipping off her mask) 
And I, sir, am the Rabbi's wife. 

(The orchestra in the ballroom starts to play a 
dance tune). 

The King: I believe we have the next dance 
together. 

Esther: (Taking his arm) The blessed inter- 
mission is over. 



(They exit.) 



Curtain. 




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